[crossfire] Random ideas.

[Mark Wedel]

  A lot of stuff discussed, so I'm going to try to catch up quickly.

1) Basing success of potons on overall level to me isn't good - base it on the 
overall stats of the player or something.  If I'm a sucky player and don't do 
the right dungeons to get a bunch of potions to level 30, I'd hate to 
effectively be punished for that fact by not being able to use those potions.

2) I'm not sure what increasing the level arrays to 115 really does relative to 
improvment potions, and/or I don't see how that wouldn't make characters more 
powerful.  And the fact that improvement potions loose usefulness isn't as big a 
deal to me as stat potions (the fact that improvement potions show up in shops 
also make me reluctant to make a change - if they are always useful, players 
will always snatch them up.  Stat potions OTOH can only be found in dungeons)

3) Stat inflation (wraith thief 30 dex at level 10) is perhaps derived directly 
from the fact that stat limits were increased.  At one point, the racial and 
class bonuses were not that big - that was described as a problem, so the limits 
were made more extreme.  Still don't see how a wraith theif can get a 30 dex - 
looking at the archs, a theif gives +3 dex, wriath +4.  So I think the best they 
can start with is still a 25 (max base stat I believe is 18).  There max natural 
would be 27, so they'd still seem to need a little help to get to 30.

4) There is no clear difference of max stats vs max stats + equipment.  The 
entire discussion here relating to max stats is how big the arrays are that 
describe the bonuses.  max 'natural' stats is really limited by the rules of 
potion consumption and racial/class bonuses.

How is this for a proposal:

1) Increase the stat limit to 35.  However, this would be done by effectively 
stretching out the bonuses, eg, the bonuses a character currently gets at 30, 
under the new system they would need a 35, so bonuses at 30, 25, etc, would be 
lower than they are now, thus weakening hte characters (I really don't want to 
make any change that would let characters become yet even more powerful)  I'm 
still mixed on this, especially see point at end

2) By default, stat potions would be temporary, but with a long duration (in 
real time, like an hour).  A small percentage of the time, they may permanently 
increase a stat.  This percentage would be based on if the character has reached 
racial maximums in that stat, as well as their overall stats (thus, a player 
that starts with sucky stats has an easier time catching up with someone who 
starts with really good stats).

  In the initial version, I'd make the stat gain happen all the time (I think 
that in itself would result in players just using the potions as they play - 
right now people have piles of them because they've been adventuring for a long 
time with nothing to do with them.  If stat potions gave me a temporary boost, 
I'd probably drink a potion of almost all the stats before going into a dungeon.

  I would amend this to be that for each stat, you can only have one temporary 
boost based on potions for each stat (eg, you can't drink 5 str potions to boost 
your str 5 points).  But I think even boosting 1 point for many stats is 
something I'd certainly use those potions for.

3) It could be interesting to make potions that would increase stats by 2 points 
(greater strenght potion, etc) on the temporary basis.  These greater potions 
would also have a greater chance of permanently increasing a stat, but would 
still only increase it by 1 point)

4) Change #2, while not incompatible with existing code, maks things pretty 
unfair to new players who have to play by different stat raising rules that 
players who have been on the server that predate this change.  I suppose someone 
could write a script that basically adjusts existing characters stats (knowing 
that at best, the starting total would have to in some range or something), but 
that is likely to make existing characters not especially happy.

  Likewise, change #1, presuming the stats aren't lowered for existing 
characters, would weaken characters (characters would not have as many 
hp/sp/grace as before, do less damage, be slower, etc).  This can actually be 
pretty annoying - it might have been that you could pretty easily kill a dragon, 
but with the changes, dragon now kills you - it'd probably take a little time 
for players to effectively 'rediscover' their characters

  the simplest would be for existing serves to wipe the data and start anew, but 
that would probably irk existing characters (OTOH, for some servers, maybe not 
so much, as it would potentially give new players the oppurtunities to get 
guilds or other things that have all been snapped up).